Change
by 1Thunderfire
Summary: In the last tournament, Luigi used the Negative Zone as his Final Smash and it was utterly powerful. Everyobdy pretty much feared it in fact. This time, however, in preparation for the new and upcoming tournament, it seems that he's unable to use it at all. How come? And did Luigi really want to keep it in the first place?


**Hello! I've been looking through the Smash Bros section and I fear that there is a criminal lack of Luigi and a lot of the Luigi stories on there probably should go to the Mario section instead. So I thought I'd add one of my own here. I even managed to do it in one day which I'm pleased about. It's about Luigi's Negative Zone and how it came about and how it affects him. It's very powerful indeed.**

**I can't wait for the new Smash Bros! No doubt he'll be at the top of the leaderboard as he is on my copy of ****_Brawl._**** Out of 34 mainly stock matches, he's only ever lost once. Luigi's awesome. :)**

**So then, I hope you enjoy this little offering. :D**

* * *

**Change**

Let us talk about the Negative Zone.

The Negative Zone was a Final Smash, an ultimate move that could lead to devastating KOs. Final Smashes utilised the greatest source of power that resided inside every Smasher. Executed properly, many were a dazzling display of colour, a furious inferno of fire, an overwhelming ball of electricity, a meteor shower of stars and more. They took many different guises. They were extraordinarily powerful. They were game-changers. They could catapult a Smasher from last to first in one fell swoop. A Final Smash was an ability to be wary of.

The Negative Zone was one such Final Smash to be extremely wary of.

Luigi had cultivated this Final Smash before the Brawl Tournament drawing on his life experiences, memories and emotions. The result was one that left even Master Hand temporarily speechless and Luigi had earned that rare Thumbs Up. Master Hand greatly approved.

Upon unleashing the Negative Zone, everything within that environment had their colours inverted, including Luigi himself and the unfortunate Smashers who so happened to be caught within it. It was an odd dance he performed; indeed, Luigi barely seemed aware of it himself. Nevertheless, in contrast to its oddness, it was a terribly powerful Final Smash.

How powerful? Let me count the ways. One had drastically lowered attack power, a drastic reduction in weight therefore leading to a greater launch distance, constant tripping, sudden sleepiness, damaging flower growth, uncontrollable taunting, dizziness, and even a slow time effect. Many were sitting ducks for Luigi's Smash attacks or his personal favourite, his Fire Jump Punch. So extraordinary was this move that it could even pierce the invincibility of opponents who had only just spawned back onto the stage after a previous KO. It even continued if he was somehow knocked out during the process. No one else had that. Luigi had earned a lot of KOs with this move.

There were a lot of side-effects deriving from this move. Nobody considered the side-effects it had on Luigi.

Negative energy and emotions flooded through him every time he unleashed the spectacle. Call backs to his worst moments and nightmares. Feelings of utter torment and despair. Deathly. Forever stuck in the shadows. Unwanted, unneeded. A pounding darkness. He could at least shake some of the feelings off during the midst of a heated battle. But not always. And many times the effects caught up with him later.

Several times his brother Mario had to wake him up from a terrifying nightmare. It frightened him more than he would admit when he saw Luigi thrashing about in his sleep, drenched in cold sweat, panting heavily, his heart racing. One time he had to pin Luigi down so he wouldn't accidentally set fire to the bedroom, seeing the green flames swirl rapidly around his hands. There had been commotion of course, causing Mario to angrily shoo the arrivals away, away from his brother. It had been much for their own safety as well as his own and his brother's.

Another time Luigi had an excruciating nightmare in which he felt he was being burned alive and yet there were no flames. This was no mere dream but such an instance had occurred before with only a minimal amount of exaggeration. Twice in fact.

Both occasions he had been trapped within a magical force-field, unable to free himself no matter how much strength he threw into his efforts to escape. The first time round, he remembered much later, he had not been himself. His mind had been violated, twisted, turned to the efforts of a madman who wished to destroy the entire universe, all worlds, all lives. Luigi had failed to smash the unholy artefact that would be responsible for this imminent apocalypse. His actions delivered him into the clutches of the madman who felt that he could tap into his abilities, use him to further his ultimate goals. He was not the only one who wished to control Luigi to further his own ambitions.

The first occasion had not been as bad as the second. It had freed him from that fierce mind control though he didn't know it at the time. He had been reunited with Mario in the Underwhere, the underworld of that universe. He would rise to the occasion and help destroy that artefact, the Chaos Heart, and prevent the loss of billions and billions of lives.

The second occasion had been much worse. Duelling against the psychotic jester known as Dimentio, Luigi appeared to have him on the ropes, jumping and pounding against him with great aplomb. However, the jester had a trump card up his sleeve. He trapped the young man in another cage and Luigi truly thought he was going to die there and then. His heart stopped for a moment as a searing agony overwhelmed his body. He did not know he was going to be returned to his previous state, that of a puppet, a puppet of pure obedience serving Dimentio's unbelievable evil, an evil they were trying to eradicate.

The universe had been saved in the end of course, else you would not be reading these words. The first madman, Count Bleck, had repented and redeemed himself, his love for one who had been lost for so many years caused the Chaos Heart to erase himself. Dimentio, who had wholly taken possession of Luigi during that intense final battle, was utterly destroyed.

Luigi had barely survived that encounter.

He felt immense guilt over what he had done, even though he had no control over the events whatsoever, even though he was reassured that there was nothing he could have done and that he had helped them after being reunited with Mario. What if he had been stronger, and not so weak as to be controlled not once, but twice? What if he had managed to overpower Mario and kill him, his only living relative? These thoughts had tormented Luigi for a long time.

Even without that, he was plagued by his feelings of inadequacy next to his big brother; that he could never match up to him, never become a true hero in the eyes of others. If he went from the Mushroom Kingdom, would he be missed? Surely he would be forgotten. Forever stuck in Mario's shadow, his Final Smash was a significant reflection of that.

It was events such as these that fuelled his Negative Zone.

* * *

It wasn't long until the new tournament would finally begin even though Master Hand hadn't officially named it yet. For now, it was called _Super Smash Bros 4._ Most of the old Smashers had returned and they were looking forward to receiving newcomers and pulling the usual pranks on them to make sure they were properly welcomed. Well, perhaps not Palutena. She was a goddess after all and in any case, she had assisted Pit's Final Smash in the previous tournament. The old Smashers meanwhile, had established themselves once again and were getting back into their old habits already.

Mario was in the lounge currently debating (read: arguing) with Link over how the Mushroom Kingdom obviously triumphed over Hyrule in a number of things including sports and kart racing. Peach was having a girly session with Zelda and Samus, the latter being accompanied by Pikachu who was very faithful towards her and had clearly missed her after all of this time. Captain Falcon was blasting around the track desperately trying to outpace Sonic in his beloved vehicle. Meta Knight and Lucario were meditating and woe betide anyone who dared interrupt their zen-like surroundings. Kirby, King Dedede and Yoshi were probably going to raid the larders not knowing they would be zapped by ROB who hadn't revealed if he was still going to be a Smasher or not. The others were doing whatever they were doing. Luigi was in the Training Room.

His skills were in tip-top shape considering that he and Mario had recently defeated yet another evil trying to conquer the world not including Bowser whose threats were more or less weekly. Nevertheless, it never hurt to continue honing such skills.

He sighed a little as he held the Final Smash Ball though. It had been ages since he had utilised this move. It would most likely bring out all his old negative emotions again. Though he still had nightmares, they were far less frequent and much less severe nowadays. Even if he hadn't realised that himself, Mario had informed him about it with undisguised relief. He was glad his brother was back on track. Besides, those nightmares had constantly interrupted his own sleep.

Though Luigi still had his own worries and personal fears, he had been quietly gaining confidence in recent times. Much of it was due to Mario acknowledging that there were many things he couldn't do without Luigi by his side. That business on Pi'illo Island had certainly proved that, both in the real world and the dream world. And recently, it seemed that he was being appreciated more. What brought this about he wasn't too sure but he was very grateful for it.

Luigi activated the Smash Ball and waited for the power to flood him throughout ready to be unleashed for devastating purposes.

There was a green flicker about him that coughed, sputtered and died a moment later.

_Huh? What's going on?_

Luigi frowned. He remembered the dance moves for the Negative Zone thinking it was just as well that he kept himself flexible, he had activated the Smash Ball correctly since there was only one way to activate the Smash Ball, and he had followed the correct procedures. But it hadn't worked.

_Maybe that one was faulty._ It was very unlikely but still within the realms of possibility.

Luigi grabbed another Smash Ball and held himself in position as he readied the Smash Ball to act as a conduit for his powers. The same result occurred.

_That can't happen twice. You can't just lose your Final Smash can you? Mamma mia, have I lost some of my powers?_

Luigi tried again and again and on the last attempt, there wasn't even a flicker. There was a very faint glow but that was all.

Luigi groaned. He couldn't enter the tournament without his Final Smash! Everyone had to have a Final Smash; that was part of the requirements of being a Smasher. A Final Smash could turn the tables at any moment and made things very exciting for the crowds. The Negative Zone, much as Luigi loathed it on many an occasion, had helped propel him to the top of the charts. Of course, his overall combat and dodging skills were the meat of that success but even so, the Final Smash had helped.

_How come I can't do it anymore? What's gone wrong? What should I do?_ The best thing to do would be to inform Master Hand and get his advice. But Luigi was scared that the floating hand would give him a Thumbs Down and not take this sort of news very well at all. Nobody visited Master Hand lightly except Crazy Hand and Crazy Hand was… well… crazy.

As Luigi frantically worried on the spot, the Training Room admitted another fighter and Luigi saw a slightly charred Kirby with sparks still jumping off him.

"Kirby!" he exclaimed, momentarily forgetting his own troubles. "What happened to you?"

"I was hungry," the pink puffball shrugged. "And Yoshi was hungry. And Dedede was hungry. So we went for some food. You know that the larder always has succulent steaks, juicy Maxim Tomatoes, rich, delicious cake with lots of creamy cream…"

"Get to the point."

"Oh, yeah, _poyo._ Turns out it's being guarded now. We cost Master Hand a lot of gold last time for our frequent snacks. And ROB's got a system in place for certain intruders. And it hurt. But I was hungry!" he repeated as if this justified absolutely everything in the world. "At least I managed to get some cookies though!" he continued triumphantly. These were no ordinary chocolate-chip cookies; they were massive ones. Kirby proceeded to scarf them down one by one, happy that Luigi refused his sacrifice of even one cookie. He looked about the Training Room and noticed the scattered Smash Balls. "Wow, you're sure keeping on top of your game, _poyo._ I suppose it makes sense though since you were the champ last time. That move of yours is devastating though." Kirby shuddered. Everyone feared the Negative Zone.

"It won't be doing any more devastating. I can't use the Negative Zone anymore."

Kirby mentally cheered at this as would anyone else, but seeing that Luigi looked quite distressed, he just said: "Oh. How?"

"I've just tried using the Smash Balls and all I got was a flicker. And now nothing."

"Bit of a balls up, huh?"

Luigi eyed the sniggering puffball. "You're too young to be making jokes like that."

"Blame Dedede. His influence corrupts me. And I'm older than I look."

"_Riiiiiight._ But anyway, it's just failed me completely."

"Why?"

"I don't know," Luigi moaned. "I just expected it to work like it normally does. I know I've been through a lot of this past couple of years but there have been quite a few good things too. I've had a good line-up of games recently. People have noticed me more, especially in the Mario Kart 8 tournament; that was good fun. I gave them a good Death Stare. Don't ask," he said to the confused puffball. "Heck, I've even had a year dedicated to me."

"Congratulations," said Kirby without any sarcasm. "It had to come. You and Mario are known as the _Super Mario Bros._ after all which means there's more than one of you."

"Thanks, Kirby."

"I guess that means you must be pretty happy if you've had all these good things happening to you!" Kirby said cheerfully, spraying crumbs as he talked. "I know I was really happy when I had my 20th anniversary milestone. Sonic wasn't though when he had his 15th milestone. In fact, he was really miserable. Something about a complete failure and Eggman not looking like Eggman and looking really creepy. _Mmm, eggs…"_ the puffball drooled.

_Of course,_ Luigi thought to himself. _It's so obvious._

The reason why the Negative Zone worked in the first place was because Luigi had a lot of dark, negative emotions and memories swirling about him. They had affected him deeply, traumatised him even. But he had been working through them recently and nowadays he felt more laid-back and relaxed. He didn't feel as if he was stuck in Mario's shadow as much these days either. The reason why the Negative Zone had stopped working was simple.

He was happy.

"What? It just makes me think of eggs and it makes me feel hungry!" Kirby said seeing Luigi grin to himself.

"Huh? Oh, it's not that, I've just worked something out," he explained. "It was something you said that made it clear why I can't use the Negative Zone anymore."

He was no longer tormented by his past in the same way. He had found the nicer things in life. His recent memories were more pleasant and even when the fighting was down, he had his brother by his side, keeping each other strong. He was happy.

"Really? _Poyo?_ Oh, cool. Speaking of Final Smashes, I'm changing mine."

"Really? How come?"

"Well, Cook Kirby was fine," Kirby was saying, "because that was food-related and Chef Kawasaki helped me with that one. I mean, I could get items out of it and such but I think I need something more powerful. Like Sword Kirby, _poyo. _Meta will like that one. And I don't want to be associated with food all the time because I'm known for lots of other things! Like all the other abilities and moves I have. "

"I guess I'll have to think about a new Final Smash then. But what could I use?" Luigi said thoughtfully to himself. Though fireballs were all very well and good, he didn't want to use the same sort of move as Mario. He was his own person. He wanted to stay unique.

"I think Sword Kirby will be the best thing, _poyo,_" Kirby continued without really listening. "I can slash through big things. And besides, the other reason why I'm changing from Cook Kirby is that every time I used it, I just heard this voice in my head going, _"Suck it up, Kirby!"_ even though I wasn't sucking anything up. This girl keeps saying that on Pop Star. It was getting really annoying."

"Kirby," Luigi said his eyes bright with animation. "You've just given me a fantastic idea and you've really helped me out today."

"Oh, wow," Kirby smiled. "… Do you think that's worth a cake reward then?"

"… I'll arrange something."

* * *

"GHOSTS!" Marth was squealing. "THERE ARE GHOSTS EVERYWHERE IN THE SMASH MANSION! NO, DON'T KILL ME! ARRRGH, THEY'RE DROWNING ME IN THEIR SLIME! BWARRHGBLE!"

"What?!" Pac-Man yelled, a newcomer to the Smash Mansion. "Yo, Mega-Man, grab me some Power Pellets ASAP, ten-hut and be quick about it! I've been through the wars fighting ghosts in countless of very similar-looking mazes and I know how to deal with them. I'll get rid of these slimy spirit scum or else! NO! DON'T TAKE MY GLORIOUS FRUIT! NO! YOU'RE SLIMING ALL OVER MY DELICIOUS FRUIT!"

"OK, who let in these things from the outer wherever?" Fox sighed. "And where's Falco? I'm sure he was here to sign up again. Have these ghouls already eaten him?"

"_Two Queries,"_ ROB buzzed over the general screaming and yelling of Marth and Pac-Man especially. _"One: Crazy Hand was exploring dimensions and accidentally or purposely opened a hole in the fabric of the space-time continuum_ _from the real world into the spirit world. This caused terrible damage and the phantoms are now seeking revenge on you flesh-and-blood mortals. As these do not appear to be of the possessing type, I am thankfully safe to carry out my duties."_

"Yeah, that's great," Fox grumbled as he tried shooting them with his blaster. Cheap thing. He needed a better weapon. Damn Slippy Toad. "But what about my second question?"

"_Query: I am disconcerted that I am unable to address your query. I have shame. Please refer to Master Hand for an appropriate response." _

"I'll give them the old one-two!" Little Mac boasted. "No one can match my fists!"

"_Negative," _ROB continued. Five seconds later, Little Mac was screaming that he really needed his pancreas and that the slime was spoiling his very tight shorts. _"Physical means are mainly ineffective against these phantoms. It would be like using a feather to scratch my steel frame though my databanks suggest that my words just then were a gross exaggeration. Kirby, do not use your sword against them. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SWALLOW THE PHANTOMS. Ah, you desired an earlier warning, yes?" _ROB finished as Kirby started frothing wildly at the mouth and suddenly feeling very sick. He threw up multi-coloured projectile.

"Hey, Mario!" Fox screamed. "Why are you just standing there?!" Mario leaned against a wall chewing a Mushroom thoughtfully.

"Huh? Oh, don't worry about it. Luigi's already taking care of the business."

And just then, Luigi burst through the door, brandishing a Poltergust 5000 and yelling: "JUST WATCH AS LUIGI PUNISHES YOU FOR YOUR BADNESS! YOU PHANTOMS DON'T STAND A GHOST OF A CHANCE!"

Mario was proud of his brother.


End file.
